Palmer United to contest South Australian, Victorian elections

ELEANOR HALL: Buoyed by his success in the federal election, Clive Palmer is now turning his attention to state contests.

The mining entrepreneur has announced that his Palmer United Party will field candidates in State Elections in South Australia and Victoria next year.

Mr Palmer says the declining manufacturing industries in both states could be revived by encouraging more coal-fired power generation. And in South Australia, he is talking up a "super" car manufacturing facility that could be shared by Holden, Ford and Toyota.

James Bennett has our report.

JAMES BENNETT: Across the nation on Saturday, 5.5 per cent of Australians voted for the Palmer United Party.

In Clive Palmer's home state of Queensland, that number was 11 per cent. But in South Australia and Victoria, the figure was lower than four per cent.

So it's perhaps surprising that Mr Palmer now plans to field candidates in both states' elections next year.

In Victoria, which goes to the polls next November, Mr Palmer thinks reviving the carbon-intensive brown coal mining industry will help cut power prices, boost manufacturing and prove a vote winner.

CLIVE PALMER: The Victorian Liberal Government's talked a lot about it but it hasn't done anything. And a lot of people are unemployed and the power energy costs in Victoria are just affecting community in a very bad way. So that's one of the policies.

JAMES BENNETT: What about South Australia?

CLIVE PALMER: Well, South Australia too has been hit very hard by manufacturing. The former prime minister Gillard said that for cars et cetera we couldn't compete because, you know, Ford was producing 40,000 cars, Toyota 90,000 cars and Holden 90,000. The Chinese have plants that produce 220,000 cars.

Well, some common sense is needed, because if you add those three together and you have one super-plant, we'd be producing as many as the Chinese would in a run and you need a bigger market. So that's the sort of thing we can do and we think we can provide that insight and leadership. We've got a great team in South Australia ready to go.

JAMES BENNETT: In both South Australia and Victoria, the car companies still operating say it's simply impossible to do so without significant government assistance. Do you agree with that?

CLIVE PALMER: No, I think, well, government can give incentives. But they don't want to give out prop-up situations that just don't have an answer. And, of course, that's what government's done so long in the car industry, just paid taxpayers' money over and left the configuration of the industry the same. Government needs to provide incentives for them to re-configure themselves so they can be internationally competitive. Otherwise we'll lose them.

JAMES BENNETT: How would you expect three car companies to agree on where that would be, how it would be run?

CLIVE PALMER: Well, pretty easily, really. I mean, if they're all coming for handouts from the Government, you just say, "well, we're not gonna give you a handout unless you get your act together." And they'll comply.

JAMES BENNETT: But Swinburne University Political Science Professor Brian Costa doubts any Federal or Queensland support will translate south.

BRIAN COSTA: What happened in Queensland is he sucked the life out of the Katter Party. I don't think that's going to - that's not gonna last. It's a splash.

JAMES BENNETT: In both South Australia and Victoria, your percentage of the vote is somewhere between three and four per cent. What do you think that would convert to at a State Election?

CLIVE PALMER: Well, first of all you've got to understand that the campaigning in Victoria and South Australia was just about ten days' campaign. And that's an extraordinary result, probably the most successful result in the history of the state, especially when you look at the National Party vote and you look at our vote in Victoria.

Secondly, that was a polarised election, as you know, between Labor and the Liberals, and we got about 5.6 across the board and Tony Abbott got elected on our preferences. We now control the balance of power in the Senate and it looks like I'll be a member of the House of Representatives.

So, you know, that was a pretty successful campaign. But I'd expect on a state campaign, which is more focussed on state issues, where people, we've got more time to put out policy, that we could have a significant impact.

ELEANOR HALL: The ever confident Clive Palmer, ending that report from James Bennett.

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